Krebs on Security

In-depth security news and investigation

Posts Tagged: 0day

For the second time in a week, Adobe has issued an emergency update to fix a critical security flaw that crooks are actively exploiting in its Flash Player software. Updates are available for Flash Player on Windows and Mac OS X.

Earlier this week, Adobe began pushing out Flash v. 16.0.0.296 to address the outstanding zero-day flaw. Adobe said users who have enabled auto-update for Flash Player will be receiving the update automatically this week. Alternatively, users can manually update by downloading the latest version from this page.

Adobe said it is working with its distribution partners to make the update available in Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 10 and 11. Google Chrome version 40.0.2214.93 includes this update, and is available now. To check for updates in Chrome, click the stacked three bars to the right of the address bar in Chrome, and look for a listing near the bottom that says “Update Chrome.”

To see which version of Flash you have installed, check this link. Windows users who browse the Web with anything other than Internet Explorer may need to apply this patch twice, once with IE and again using the alternative browser (Firefox, Opera, e.g.).

For the second time this month, Adobe has issued an emergency software update to fix a critical security flaw in its Flash Player software that attackers are already exploiting. Separately, Microsoft released a stopgap fix to address a critical bug in Internet Explorer versions 9 and 10 that is actively being exploited in the wild.

The vulnerabilities in both Flash and IE are critical, meaning users could get hacked just by visiting a compromised or booby-trapped Web site. The Flash patch comes just a little over two weeks after Adobe released a rush fix for another zero-day attack against Flash.

Adobe said in an advisory today that it is aware of an exploit that exists for one of three security holes that the company is plugging with this new release, which brings Flash Player to v. 12.0.0.70 for Linux, Mac and Windows systems.

This link will tell you which version of Flash your browser has installed. IE10/IE11 and Chrome should auto-update their versions of Flash, although IE users may need to check with the Windows Update feature built into the operating system.

Adobe, Microsoft and Oracle today each issued security updates to fix serious vulnerabilities in their products. Adobe released patches for AIR, Acrobat, Flash and Reader, while Microsoft pushed out fixes to shore up at least a half dozen security weaknesses in Windows and Office. Oracle released an update for Java that fixes at least three dozen security holes in the widely-used program.

All of the vulnerabilities that Microsoft fixed this month earned “important” ratings; not quite as dire as those labeled “critical,” which involve flaws so dangerous that they can be exploited by bad guys or malware to break into systems with no user interaction. Nevertheless, flaws marked “important” can be quite dangerous, particularly when used in tandem with other attack techniques.

By way of illustration, this month’s MS14-002 patch addresses an important zero-day flaw that was first found to be exploited in targeted attacks late last year. In one version of this attack, documented quite nicely in this fascinating yet somewhat technical writeup from Trustwave Spiderlabs, attackers used this Windows flaw in combination with a bug in Adobe Reader. According to Trustwave, the bad guys in that attack included the Windows flaw as a means of bypassing Adobe Reader’s security sandbox, a technology designed ensure that any malicious code embedded in documents only runs under limited privileges (i.e., isn’t allowed to invoke other programs or alter core system settings).

In short, don’t put off applying this month’s patches from Microsoft. They are available via Windows Update or Automatic Update. Also, Microsoft took this opportunity to remind Windows XP users that the company will no longer be supporting Windows XP after April 2014 (guess I will have to retire the above broken Windows graphic as well). The lack of ongoing security updates for XP means it will likely become an even bigger target for attackers; if you rely on XP, please consider transitioning to a newer operating system sometime soon. Who knows, it might be a great excuse to try Linux, which tends to be very light on resources and ideal for older hardware. If you’ve been considering the switch for a while, take a few distributions for a spin using one of dozens of flavors of Linux available via Live CD.

Microsoft today issued security updates to fix at least 19 vulnerabilities in its software, including a zero-day flaw in Internet Explorer browser that is already being actively exploited. Separately, Adobe has released a critical update that plugs at least two security holes in its Flash Player software.

Three of the eight patches that Microsoft released earned its most dire “critical” label, meaning the vulnerabilities fixed in them can be exploited by malware or miscreants remotely without any help from Windows users. Among the critical patches is an update for Internet Explorer (MS13-088) that mends at least two holes in the default Windows browser (including IE 11). MS13-089 is a critical file handling flaw present in virtually every supported version of Windows.

Nevertheless, it’s important for IE users to apply these updates as quickly as possible. According to Rapid7, exploit code for the ActiveX vulnerability appeared on Pastebin this morning.

“It was known to be under some targeted exploitation, but that will probably expand now that the exploit is public,” said Ross Barrett, senior manager of security engineering at Rapid7. “I would call patching this issue priority #1.” For what it’s worth, Microsoft agrees, at least according to this suggested patch deployment chart.

In a separate patch release, Adobe issued a fix for its Flash Player software for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android devices. The Flash update brings the ubiquitous player to v. 11.9.900.152 on Mac and Windows systems. Users browsing the Web with IE10 or IE11 on Windows 8.x should get the new version of Flash (11.9.900.152) automatically; IE users not on Windows 8 will need to update manually if Flash is not set to auto-update.

To check which version of Flash you have installed, visit this page. Direct links to the various Flash installers are available here. Be aware that downloading Flash Player from Adobe’s recommended spot — this page — often includes add-ons, security scanners or other crud you probably don’t want. Strangely enough, when I visited that page today with IE10 , the download included a pre-checked box to install Google Toolbar and to switch my default browser to Google Chrome.

Security experts are warning that a newly discovered vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8 is being actively exploited to break into Microsoft Windows systems. Complicating matters further, computer code that can be used to reliably exploit the flaw is now publicly available online.

In an advisory released May 3, Microsoft said it was investigating reports of a vulnerability in IE8, and that it was aware of attacks that attempt to exploit this bug. The company stresses that other versions of IE — including IE6, 7, 9 and 10 are not affected by the vulnerability. However, all versions of IE8 are vulnerable, including copies running on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Meanwhile, a new module that exploits this IE8 bug is now available for the Metasploit Framework, a free penetration testing tool. I would expect this exploit or some version of it will soon be rolled into commercial exploit kits that are sold in the cybercrime underground (assuming this has not already happened).

Update, May 9, 9:00 a.m. ET: Microsoft has released a fix-it tool to blunt attacks on this bug. See this story for more information.

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The security hole has already been leveraged in at least one high-profile attack. Over the weekend, several security vendors reported that the U.S. Department of Labor Web site had been hacked and seeded with code designed to exploit the flaw and download malicious software.

According to CrowdStrike, the server used to control this latest attack on the Labor Department site was microsoftupdate.ns1.name. The company said analysis of the logs from the attacker’s infrastructure revealed that visitors from 37 different countries browsed the site during the time it was compromised with the malicious code. AlienVault, Invincea and Cisco Systems have published additional details on this attack. AlienVault also said it has since spotted the same exploit used on at least nine other hacked Web sites, including several non-profit groups and a large European company.

When you’re lurking in the computer crime underground, it pays to watch your back and to keep your BS meter set to ‘maximum.’ But when you’ve gained access to an elite black market section of a closely guarded crime forum to which very few have access, it’s easy to let your guard down. That’s what I did earlier this year, and it caused me to chase a false story. This blog post aims to set the record straight on that front, and to offer a cautionary (and possibly entertaining) tale to other would-be cybersleuths.

On Jan. 16, 2013, I published a post titled, “New Java Exploit Fetches $5,000 Per Buyer.” The details in that story came from a sales thread posted to an exclusive subforum of Darkode.com, a secretive underground community that has long served as a bazaar for all manner of cybercriminal wares, including exploit kits, spam services, ransomware programs, and stealthy botnets. I’ve maintained a presence on this forum off and on (mostly on) for the past three years, in large part because Darkode has been a reliable place to find information about zero-days, or highly valuable threats that exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities in software — threats that are shared or used by attackers before the developer of the target software knows about the vulnerability.

I had previously broken several otherstories about zero-day exploits for sale on Darkode that later showed up “in-the-wild” and confirmed by the affected vendors, and this sales thread was posted by one of the forum’s most trusted members. The sales thread also was created during a time in which Java’s maker Oracle Corp. was struggling with multiple zero-days in Java.

What I didn’t know at the time was that this particular sales thread was little more than a carefully laid trap by the Darkode administrators to discover which accounts I was using to lurk on their forum. Ironically, I recently learned of this snare after white/grey hat hackers compromised virtually all of the administrator accounts and private messages on Darkode.

“Looks like Krebs swallowed the bait, and i got an idea how to catch him now for the next thread,” wrote Darkode administrator “Mafi” in a Jan. 16 private message to a co-admin who uses the nickname “sp3cial1st”.

Following this post, the administrators compared notes as to which users had viewed the fake Java zero-day sales thread during the brief, two-day period it was live on a restricted portion of Darkode. “I have taken a careful examination of the logs related to the java 0day thread,” sp3cial1st wrote to a Darkode administrator who used the nick “187”.

Adobe has released an emergency update for its Flash Player software that fixes three critical vulnerabilities, two of which the company warns are actively being exploited to compromise systems.

In an advisory, Adobe said two of the bugs quashed in this update (CVE-2013-0643 and CVE-2013-0648) are being used by attackers to target Firefox users. The company noted that the attacks are designed to trick users into clicking a link which redirects to a Web site serving malicious Flash content.

Readers can be forgiven for feeling patch fatigue with Flash: This is the third security update that Adobe has shipped for Flash in the last month. On Feb. 12, Adobe released a patch to plug at least 17 security holes in Flash. On Feb. 7, Adobe rushed out an update to fix two other flaws that attackers were already exploiting to break into vulnerable computers.

Adobe today pushed out an emergency update that fixes at least two zero-day vulnerabilities in its ubiquitous Flash Player software — flaws that attackers are already exploiting to break into systems. Interestingly, Adobe warns that one of the exploits in use is designed to drop malware on both Windows and Mac OS X systems.

Adobe said in an advisory that one of the vulnerabilities — CVE-2013-0634 – is being exploited in the wild in attacks delivered via malicious Flash content hosted on websites that target Flash Player in Firefox or Safari on the Macintosh platform, as well as attacks designed to trick Windows users into opening a Microsoft Word document delivered as an email attachment.

Adobe also warned that a separate flaw — CVE-2013-0633 — is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks designed to trick the user into opening a Microsoft Word document delivered as an email attachment which contains malicious Flash content. The company said the exploit for CVE-2013-0633 targets the ActiveX version of Flash Player on Windows (i.e. Internet Explorer users).

Updates are available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android users. The latest Windows and Mac version is v. 11.5.502.149, and is available from this link. Those who prefer a direct link to the OS-specific downloads can grab them here. To find out if you have Flash installed and what version your browser may be running, check out this page.

Flash Player installed with Google Chrome should automatically be updated to the latest Google Chrome version, which will include Adobe Flash Player v. 11.5.31.139 for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Likewise, Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 8 also includes an auto-update feature, which should bring Flash to version 11.3.379.14 for Windows.

Adobe’s advisory notes that the vulnerability that has been used to attack both Mac and Windows users was reported with the help of the Shadowserver Foundation, the federally funded technology research center MITRE Corporation, and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin‘s computer incident response team. No doubt there are some interesting stories about how these attacks were first discovered, and against whom they were initially deployed.

Less than 24 hours after Oraclepatched a dangerous security hole in its Java software that was being used to seize control over Windows PCs, miscreants in the Underweb were already selling an exploit for a different and apparently still-unpatched zero-day vulnerability in Java, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

Update, Apr. 2, 2:57 p.m. ET: This sales thread turned out to be an elaborate hoax designed by a cybercrime forum administrator to learn the screen name I was using to browse exclusive sections of his forum. See this story for more information on that.

Original story:

On Sunday, Oracle rushed out a fix for a critical bug in Java that had been folded into exploit kits, crimeware made to automate the exploitation of computers via Web browser vulnerabilities. On Monday, an administrator of an exclusive cybercrime forum posted a message saying he was selling a new Java 0day to a lucky two buyers. The cost: starting at $5,000 each.

The hacker forum admin’s message, portions of which are excerpted below, promised weaponized and source code versions of the exploit. This seller also said his Java 0day — in the latest version of Java (Java 7 Update 11) — was not yet part of any exploit kits, including the Cool Exploit Kit I wrote about last week that rents for $10,000 per month. From his sales pitch:

“New Java 0day, selling to 2 people, 5k$ per person

And you thought Java had epically failed when the last 0day came out. I lol’d. The best part is even-though java has failed once again and let users get compromised… guess what? I think you know what I’m going to say… there is yet another vulnerability in the latest version of java 7. I will not go into any details except with seriously interested buyers.

Code will be sold twice (it has been sold once already). It is not present in any known exploit pack including that very private version of [Blackhole] going for 10$k/month. I will accepting counter bids if you wish to outbid the competition. What you get? Unencrypted source files to the exploit (so you can have recrypted as necessary, I would warn you to be cautious who you allow to encrypt… they might try to steal a copy) Encrypted, weaponized version, simply modify the url in the php page that calls up the jar to your own executable url and you are set. You may pm me.” Continue reading →

Miscreants in the cyber underground are selling an exploit for a previously undocumented security hole in Oracle’s Java software that attackers can use to remotely seize control over systems running the program, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

The flaw, currently being sold by an established member of an invite-only Underweb forum, targets an unpatched vulnerability in Java JRE 7 Update 9, the most recent version of Java (the seller says this flaw does not exist in Java 6 or earlier versions).

According to the vendor, the weakness resides within the Java class “MidiDevice.Info,” a component of Java that handles audio input and output. “Code execution is very reliable, worked on all 7 version I tested with Firefox and MSIE on Windows 7,” the seller explained in a sales thread on his exploit. It is not clear whether Chrome also is affected. “I will only sell this ONE TIME and I leave no guarantee that it will not be patched so use it quickly.”

The seller was not terribly specific on the price he is asking for this exploit, but set the expected offer at “five digits.” The price of any exploit is ultimately whatever the market will bear, but this is roughly in line with the last Java zero-day exploit that was being traded and sold on the underground. In August, I wrote about a newly discovered Java exploit being folded into the BlackHole exploit kit, quoting the author of that crimeware tool as saying that “the price of such an exploit if it were sold privately would be about $100,000.”